Singapore, the pearl of Southeast Asia

Choosing your destination when going on exchange might be the most important choice. I was sure that I wanted to go to Australia, so I applied for three different universities in Australia. Unfortunately I didn’t get accepted, so I had to look for other destinations. This is when I first considered Singapore as my destination. I started looking into this amazing and unique country. I applied for it and got accepted, and in hindsight I am very happy that I ended up in Singapore.

At the end of July the day had come, I arrived in Singapore to study at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore for one semester. I arrived a week early, to explore the city and meet fellow exchange students. I was immediately impressed by the country. Singapore is very small, to illustrate it is only 40 km from east to west and 25 km from north to south. This makes moving around extremely easy, which is also made possible by the amazing public transport system which is very reliable. During the first week I saw most of the city centre, and explored the nightlife. I had read about drinks being expensive but when you have to pay €10,- for a beer you realize you are not in Tilburg anymore. Then it was time to move to where I was going to stay for the rest of the semester; the NTU campus.

I stayed in a dorm which I shared with a local Singaporean student. This student received study credits to stay with an exchange student. He however never asked me anything about myself, my university or the Netherlands. This was unfortunate, but apart from this living on campus was a nice experience. NTU has approximately 35.000 students of which more than 10.000 live on campus. This meant that the campus was more like a small village surrounding the university. The biggest pro about living on campus was the cost. Singapore is expensive, especially housing prices have gone through the roof in the last decade. The money I saved by living on campus immediately went to what every exchanger seemed to get more and more obsessed with as the semester progressed: travelling.

During the semester travelling was mostly limited to weekends. However as I only had lectures on Tuesdays and Wednesdays my weekends counted five days. I travelled to Malaysia twice, Cambodia, Hong Kong and during recess week I went to Bali Indonesia for ten days. I am glad I was able to visit all of these countries, and every time arriving back in Singapore made me appreciate the convenience of living there. In the meantime I did have to study, while enjoying my stay in Singapore to the fullest.

Even though I only had lectures on two days of the week the workload was higher than in Tilburg. Lectures were mandatory and four hours straight, including a short break. This sounds like a living hell but the teaching system is different than what I was used too. I only had lectures in small groups of up to 40 people, while still being taught by renowned and capable teachers. I chose mainly finance courses which were pointed out by teachers to be challenging. We had to do a lot of presentations and group assignments, which proved to be quite time consuming and challenging. But in the end passing courses was not very difficult. In Singapore grading is performed on a relative scale compared to your peers. This means that your grade depends not only on your performance but also on the performance of the rest of your class. This results in a competitive environment, as easy tests are not easy anymore. To get the best grades you have to outperform everyone in every test. Luckily failing is very uncommon in this system, and as Tilburg University now carries out a pass/fail system grades did not matter as much and I passed all of my courses.

Apart from studying I experienced what it feels like to live in another country. I got to know Singapore on a broader and deeper scale than tourists do. In September I was present at the 50^th National Day. This was Singapore’s celebration of 50 years of independence. Watching the fireworks and airshow in front of the skyline makes you realize how insane it is that this country has only existed for 50 years. Another highlight was the Formula 1 race which is held annually in the city centre. My parents visited me during this weekend and it was nice to show them Singapore. Building a country like this in 50 years is impressive, but it does require a specific vision. The Singaporean government is focused on progress, at whatever cost. When people hear about Singapore what pops into mind often are the strict laws. This is an example of the cost of progress, the people in Singapore however see this as completely normal. This also results in my opinion in a more serious society, Singaporeans are less creative and outgoing and more focused on money and success.

Unfortunately the semester had to come to an end. But my adventure in Southeast Asia did not end just yet. Immediately after my last exam I flew to Bangkok, for 6.5 weeks of travelling through Thailand, Laos and Vietnam on my own, during which I met a lot of amazing and interesting people to share my adventure with. I can only recommend travelling while you are on exchange as most likely you will never get this opportunity again. This was the perfect end to my exchange. Arriving back in the freezing cold on flip flops made me realize how great my exchange had been.